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Is There a Hearing Aid Price Bubble?

Posted by timothy on from the what's-it-worth-to-ya? dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The price of a pair of hearing aids in the U.S. ranges from $3,000 to $8,000. To the average American household, this is equivalent to 2-3 months of income! While the price itself seems exorbitant, what is even more grotesque is its continuous pace of growth: in the last decade the price of an average Behind the Ear hearing aid has more than doubled. To the present day, price points are not receding — even though most of its digital components have become increasingly commoditized. Is this a hearing aid price bubble?"

3 of 698 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Since no one ever buys them... by Cyclopedian · · Score: 5, Informative

    Most insurance plans do not cover purchases of hearing aids.

    --
    /.'s 10 Millionth
  2. Re:Yeah, but who's buying? by joocemann · · Score: 5, Informative

    No. Healthcare costs are where they are because the CAPITALISM factor is involved.

    With Single Payer Non-Profit, you can expect a 40-50% decrease in total cost to insure. Modeling after Canada's cost/person, a reduction from $1.5TR/250M-people to $1TR/300M-people is possible. That means the 250 million that pay for insurance are paying 1.5 TRILLION a year for shoddy, exclusion rich, insurance when the sum of all Americans, 300 million people, would be paying 1 TRILLION to cover everyone without any exclusions or b.s. trickery.

    I've talked to over 40 canadians about how they feel about their single-payer system and NOT A SINGLE ONE agreed with the US-paid-pundits that lie about how canadian's don't like their healthcare. Matter of fact, more than 25% of them laughed when I first asked, knowing that I had been exposed to the US-paid-pundits and required truthful answers.

  3. Re:Hmmm. by nbauman · · Score: 5, Informative

    The summary wasn't quite accurate. $3000 to $8000 a pair is supposed to be the traditional price.

    This story is actually a product marketing newsletter for the company that sells Audicus hearing aids http://www.audicus.com/category/hearing-aids/ which start from $400 a pair.

    http://www.mdhearingaid.com/acoustitone_max/ starts at $200 per pair.

    The cheapest was http://www.dealextreme.com/p/axon-hearing-aid-v163-4326 Axon Hearing Aid (V163) for about $27 a pair, but they don't seem to adjust to the frequency of the patient's loss.